Re: Books You've Read in 2020
I knew you'd have interesting stuff.
And, funny, I fancy myself above the celebrity fray, but two or three years ago the fam was on a trip to Las Vegas, which is a good meeting spot for all of us Eastern people to get some sunshine and for my western people to rendezvous. Uncle Jim lives there. Anyway, we're out sightseeing and a black Maserati convertible pulls up next to us at a stop light not far from a tiki bar called Frankie's - I think it's closer to the Fremont Street part of town. My wife is driving and I'm in the passenger seat. Windows are down. We look over and a guy is smiling at us. My mom or someone in the backseat says "he's got a face tattoo!" I look and it's Mike Tyson! I lost my sh!t like a teen girl in the 60s seeing a member of the Monkees. Everybody waved and he smiled at us and sped off. Saw him again later that night doing the same thing. He was driving around mugging at people to promote his speaking show. Anyway, I grew up on boxing and (more honestly, the Rocky movies & playing Mike Tyson's punchout on Nintendo). Iron Mike was truly one of the greatest athletes who ever athleted. It was fun.
Re: Books You've Read in 2020
I just finished Volume Control by David Owen. It's a very wide-ranging overview -- which occasionally borders on exposé -- about hearing, hearing impairment(s), technology companies who make tools for the hearing impaired, and how/why ear health & safety are underrepresented and overlooked.
Re: Books You've Read in 2020
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bob Ross
I just finished Volume Control by David Owen. It's a very wide-ranging overview -- which occasionally borders on exposé -- about hearing, hearing impairment(s), technology companies who make tools for the hearing impaired, and how/why ear health & safety are underrepresented and overlooked.
A buddy I met through MTBing runs a genetic lab at whatever they're now calling the Medical College of Georgia (it's changed names a few times over the years). He gets his funding from the VA. They use zebra danios, a fish you an buy at any place that sells tropical fish. They use fish because, compared to rats, they reproduce much faster, they can get several generations in the time it takes mamals to reproduce once. And their physiology is closer to us than you think - give them lipitor, their colesterol goes down.
So hearing works by very fine hairs in your ear picking up vibration and sending a signal l to your brain through your nerves. Really loud sounds (gunfire, explosions, etc) can kill the hairs - but they will grow back. Unfortunately when they grow back, they don't reconnect w/the nerve, so the signal doesn't get sent to your brain.
Zebra danios can reconnect the nerve. He's trying to figure out how to make it so people can do that too.
Another fun story about David - he was MTBing with some friends, crashed, hit his head pretty hard. Hard enough he stopped to throw up a time or two on the way back to his car. His buddies took him to get checked out, they ended up finding an aneurysm that hadn't ruptured yet. They gave him a few weeks to heal up from the concussion, then did surgery to fix it before it killed him. That concussion saved his life!
Re: Books You've Read in 2020
“Dune”, by Frank Herbert
Published in 1966 Dune is a sci-fi classic. It takes place on the desert planet Arrakis, and tells the story of a royal family feud and a boy’s rise to power. The planet is so dry that moisture is essentially sacred, the people who live there only venture out into the open while wearing ‘stillsuits’ designed your reclaim nearly all moisture they give off through sweat or breathing (how they recover water from peeing and pooping isn’t really ever discussed....). It’s sort of a sci-fi Game of Thrones, with different houses fighting and vying for power, and lots of characters. There’s different religions, politics, battles, and giant sand worms. If you’re into sci-fi, it’s a good read. “Greatness is a transitory experience.”
Up next for me :: finishing "Dichotomy of Leadership".
https://i.imgur.com/9US0Ttn.jpg
Re: Books You've Read in 2020
Just finished The Zimmerman Telegram by Barbara Tuchman.
Interesting book about WW-1 and the entry of the USA into that war.
The Germans tried to start a war between Mexico/Japan and the USA in order to keep the US from
joining the Allies in Europe. Wilson fought hard to keep the US out of the war but this letter was one of the last straws.
The other was unrestricted sub attacks on US shipping.
Many Germans felt at the time that Germany would lose the ground war if the US entered on the Allied side..
which, in fact, happened.
2 Attachment(s)
Re: Books You've Read in 2020
got about halfway through this issue this morning. one of my favorite non-university journals. always full of strong work.
Attachment 114533
and of course I'll pitch that you read this. get the advance sales discount.
Shape the Bent Straight / Robert Lee Kendrick | Main Street Rag
Attachment 114534
Re: Books You've Read in 2020
Had a recommendation to read The Rosie Project recently. Downloaded the audiobook and forgot about it until I boarded a flight from India back to the UK last week. Started listening to it as we took off and couldn't stop for 7.5hrs until I had done cover to cover. I was in tears laughing for most of it. Very, very funny and sensitive in equal measure. The author obviously has an intimate knowledge of his subject.
Re: Books You've Read in 2020
Bought this at the airport last night and am halfway done.
Easy read. Nothing deep, but worthwhile.
If nothing else, it'll spur me to go see my doctor for a long overdue regular checkup soon...
Denali by Ben Moon: 978143133612 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
https://images3.penguinrandomhouse.c.../9780143133612
Re: Books You've Read in 2020
And now I just finished Peter Godfrey-Smith's Other Minds: The Octopus, The Sea, and The Deep Origins of Consciousness
Wonderful book that offers supremely well-reasoned conjecture and peer-supported theory side-by-side with genuinely unabashed wonder at the notion that of all the beings with complex nervous systems and some semblance of intelligence on this planet, all of them developed along one very ancient branch in the tree of life ...save one.
Re: Books You've Read in 2020
Into the Jungle by Erica Ferencik . Sorta like Into the Wild but it takes place in Amazonian Bolivia . The principal character is forced to deal with extreme jungle life forces, poachers, indigenous tribes and her own issues.
Re: Books You've Read in 2020
Quote:
Originally Posted by
zambenini
I knew you'd have interesting stuff.
And, funny, I fancy myself above the celebrity fray, but two or three years ago the fam was on a trip to Las Vegas, which is a good meeting spot for all of us Eastern people to get some sunshine and for my western people to rendezvous. Uncle Jim lives there. Anyway, we're out sightseeing and a black Maserati convertible pulls up next to us at a stop light not far from a tiki bar called Frankie's - I think it's closer to the Fremont Street part of town. My wife is driving and I'm in the passenger seat. Windows are down. We look over and a guy is smiling at us. My mom or someone in the backseat says "he's got a face tattoo!" I look and it's Mike Tyson! I lost my sh!t like a teen girl in the 60s seeing a member of the Monkees. Everybody waved and he smiled at us and sped off. Saw him again later that night doing the same thing. He was driving around mugging at people to promote his speaking show. Anyway, I grew up on boxing and (more honestly, the Rocky movies & playing Mike Tyson's punchout on Nintendo). Iron Mike was truly one of the greatest athletes who ever athleted. It was fun.
Totally OT but I think you might appreciate this.
In 1988 I was a member of the Marine Detachment at the American Embassy, Moscow USSR. One of the guys came back from leave in Helsinki and he had met Howard Hesseman (Dr Johnny Fever of WKRP) in the airport in Moscow. He had talked to him for a bit and Howard told him where he was staying. We called him the next day and invited him over to the Marine House. He didn't show that night but some others did.....the show Head of the Class was in Moscow to film two episodes. At that time Mike was married to Robin Givens and she was an actress in the show. Mike had come along with the group and he came over to the House quite often; even though it was the USSR the Russians knew who he was and he couldn't go anywhere without being swamped by people, so coming to the House (which had controlled access) was his escape. They were there for about two weeks and it was a common event during that time to walk into the living room and find Mike crashed out on the couch. One of the guys even gave him a haircut. Howard did show up at the House a couple of times and on their last Saturday in Moscow we threw a party for the entire cast and crew.
Re: Books You've Read in 2020
That's a great story! And what a cool experience and time you must have had then, too.
Re: Books You've Read in 2020
Just finished the Uninhabitable Earth and it is fucking terrifying. I don’t even know what to think anymore.
Now reading the Billionaires Wilderness about inequality in Jackson WY and it’s worth a read.
Re: Books You've Read in 2020
Tim Moore - Frost on my moustache.
He's got a whole series, some hits and misses, but this one's pretty good. Glad to have found him. Travel books, some by bicycle.
Re: Books You've Read in 2020
"Texas Flood, the Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughn". Killer guitarist. Tragic career.
Re: Books You've Read in 2020
My wife reads more than I do because she is always up between the hours of 4 & 6 AM. She recommends The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki. Pre-WWII Japan family saga. Lots of historical interest.
Re: Books You've Read in 2020
The Mirror Visitor, by Christelle Dabos. It's a trilogy, but the third book is not available in English yet. Gets released in September. If you can read French you are in luck and you can probably get that now.
I think they are meant for kids, but if you let one read them first I promise you'll be hurrying them up as they read the second book. Both my wife and my son had serious WTF moments when they discovered they'd have to wait the best part of a year to get their mits on the third book. Really, really good.
I've also just ripped through the Ink trilogy by Cornelia Funke. Again, ostensibly aimed at children. We bought them for our eldest son for Christmas. I've read them, my wife has just started. Also really good, but you don't neglect the outside world to quite the same extent as you do with the Mirror Visitor.
Re: Books You've Read in 2020
I think I am going to read this book.
Stacey Abrams Has a Message for You: Get Involved - The New York Times
Quite a few conversations about Stacey Abrams I’ve been party to have begun with the qualification “I don’t know too much about her...” including from me, so while this isn’t a biography, her ideas are potentially more valuable to understand.
If anyone else here reads it, maybe we can start a thread and compare notes.
Re: Books You've Read in 2020
Quote:
Originally Posted by
j44ke
I think I am going to read this book.
Stacey Abrams Has a Message for You: Get Involved - The New York Times
Quite a few conversations about Stacey Abrams I’ve been party to have begun with the qualification “I don’t know too much about her...” including from me, so while this isn’t a biography, her ideas are potentially more valuable to understand.
If anyone else here reads it, maybe we can start a thread and compare notes.
I got to hear her talk to a small group of activists on Zoom a few weeks ago. Articulate, personable and prepared.
While I've got concerns about her national-level experience, I think she could be the just the ticket needed for the ticket.
Re: Books You've Read in 2020
Just finished The Mirror and the Light. It's too long, as every reviewer says, but Hilary Mantel didn't do any injustice to her trilogy by slowing up at the end. I'm tempted to pick up Wolf Hall again but there are too many books I haven't read.